Investigation | The reporter visited the commuting situation in the Beijing area, and the "commuters" returned to the familiar way to work
Customized express buses have resumed, inter-provincial buses have become crowded, and ride-sharing groups have also become active.
With the continuous optimization of epidemic prevention and control measures, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei commuters who have been at home for a long time finally embarked on the familiar way to work.
Compared with the increasingly strong travel demand, the current supporting transportation capacity during peak hours is still slightly insufficient. Increasing the number of trains and shifts is the appeal of many inter-provincial commuters.
Interprovincial bus
The carriage is getting crowded
Within about 200 meters to the east of the intersection of the auxiliary road on the south side of Jianguo Road and Ganghe West Road, there are 4 "Langjiayuan" bus stops.
The 816, 817, 818 and 930 buses departing here are all too familiar to some inter-provincial commuters who commute to and from Beijing and Hebei every day.
After starting from Langjiayuan Station, these four-way buses will first pass through Tongzhou, and the end point is either Yanjiao or Dachang.
At 6:30 in the evening, the reporter came to the Langjiayuan bus station and saw that there were many buses lined up on the side of the road. The first bus on each line departed, and after a minute or two there would be one behind. The vehicle lights up the line number and lights and goes forward to make up for the seat, and the passengers get on the car one by one.
"Let's go every five or six minutes! The departures are very dense!" A bus security guard who was preparing to follow the 818 bus told reporters that when the epidemic was more severe, there were very few people commuting by bus, and the number of departures was also reduced. There are many, but even so it is difficult to fill up, "There are only five or six people in one car."
The situation is very different now. The reporter saw that there are at least thirty or forty passengers waiting in line for the 818 bus.
Every time a new car arrives, some passengers will get on the car and take their seats, and some passengers behind will see that there are no seats, and they will pull over and wait for the next one.
There are also some people who don't care if they have a seat or not, and just get on the bus.
At around 6:50, the reporter boarded a newly arrived No. 818 bus.
About 30 seats in the car were quickly filled, and there were 2 passengers standing in the aisle.
The bus departed at 6:54, and after driving for more than 20 minutes, the bus arrived at the second stop on the line, which was located at the "South Station of Beijing Ziwu University" in Tongzhou. There were more than a dozen passengers on board here. become crowded.
Not far forward to the "Beijing Chest Hospital Station", a few more passengers got on the bus, and the aisle of the vehicle was basically occupied by passengers.
Going forward, Baimiao New Village and Tongzhou Baimiao Village are the last two stops within Beijing, and there are not many passengers getting on and off here.
Following the warning from the security guard, "Tongzhou is gone," the vehicle finally drove into the boundary of Yanjiao. At this time, there were more than 40 passengers in the vehicle.
In Ouyi Liting, Chaobai Renjia Community, and Zizhuyuan Community, several passengers will get off at each station near the community.
At the penultimate station of the line, Sky Ocean City, almost all the remaining nearly 20 passengers got off the bus.
The time at this time is 8:09, about 1 hour and 15 minutes after the departure from Langjiayuan.
Customized express bus
Popularity after restoration
Some communities have inter-provincial bus stops at the entrance, while residents of other communities are not so lucky. If they want to take the bus to and from get off work, they have to back up, which is troublesome.
The custom express bus opened between Beijing and Beisan counties in July last year gave these commuters a new choice.
At 8 o'clock in the morning, a bus with the words "Customized Express Bus" came from a distance and stopped outside Exit G of Guomao Metro Station.
More than 10 passengers got off the bus, including Xiao Zhou who works near the International Trade Center.
From here, he only needs to walk another 15 minutes to get to the unit, just in time to clock in before the scheduled arrival time at 8:30.
"This car is really convenient!" Xiao Zhou lives in the Lanwan community in Hawaii in Yanjiao. Before he had a customized express bus, he had to back up two cars by bus, and it took him about an hour and a half to get from his home to Guomao.
With the customized express bus, half an hour is saved, and you can still sleep on the bus.
In October last year, the customized express bus was suspended due to the epidemic, and it was not resumed until mid-December.
During these two months, Xiao Zhou had to take the bus back, and there were also some "private buses" at the entrance of the community to pick up customers.
The cars of these private buses are relatively old, and because they do not belong to buses, they cannot use bus lanes on the road, so they do not have an advantage in terms of time.
But during that time, there was no customized express bus, so Xiao Zhou could only settle for the next best thing.
"Now that Kuaiba is available again, I will definitely still take this." When Kuaiba just recovered, the community was full of joy.
Xiao Zhou was well-informed, and got into the car as soon as the line was reopened.
There were very few people in those days, which is incomparable to now.
"It's hard to buy tickets now."
Xiao Zhou's community is located in Nancheng, Yanjiao, and there are obviously more people taking express buses than Beicheng.
The three trains departing between 7:00 and 7:20 are most suitable for the needs of commuters in terms of time, and tickets are also the most difficult to buy.
Tickets are released on Saturday of the first week, and in just one day, the tickets from Monday to Friday next week will basically be sold out.
If you didn't pay attention to grab the ticket at that time, you will have no car next week.
Xiao Zhou once encountered a situation where he forgot to buy a ticket. In the following week, he had to take another bus or take a private bus.
"Can you tell the express bus company to add a few more shifts!" With Xiao Zhou's appeal, the reporter found the operating company that customized the express bus.
The person in charge of the line said that not only Xiao Zhou, but they have also learned about passengers' demands for overtime during their previous research. The company will optimize the operation plan as soon as possible and increase vehicles and shifts.
Judging from the data, since the express bus resumed in mid-December, the demand for passengers is gradually increasing.
The average daily passenger flow in recent days has recovered to 95% of the previous peak.
With the investment of new cars and the increase of frequency, the number of passengers is expected to further increase in the future.
take a ride
The atmosphere of the carpool group is active
Xiao Liu, who lives in Gu'an, finally resumed his daily commute to and from Beijing in the past half a month.
The main buses from Gu'an to Beijing are 849, 828, and 943. In the community where Xiaoliu lives, I have to switch to the local line to get on these three buses.
It takes about one and a half hours to two hours to wait for the bus and take the bus together.
There is no customized express bus between Gu'an and Beijing, and many people need to take the three-way bus to Beijing.
Recently, Xiao Liu has clearly felt that more and more people are returning to commuting.
During the morning rush hour, no matter which train it is, it must be full.
If they don’t take the bus, commuters from Gu’an to and from Beijing will spontaneously form some carpool groups.
Some of the car owners have Beijing brand cars, so they can drive to Beijing, and if they are on the way, they can also take others for a ride.
In the past one or two months, due to the pop-up window due to the epidemic, few people would go to Beijing. Xiao Liujia's carpool group was dead, and there was almost no news.
It wasn't until mid-December that the group became active again.
Up to now, some car owners have sent another message "full" within 5 minutes after posting the carpooling message.
The owner of a carpooling group was obviously very excited about the resumption of commuting, and changed the group announcement to "Return to normal work and life! Shunfeng has restarted!" Xiao Liu is also very happy about the resumption of commuting, after all, many jobs are still on the way. Units are better developed.
At present, the only thing she has some doubts about is the inspection and verification system when entering Beijing.
Whether you carpool or take a bus, you have to pass through a checkpoint when entering Beijing.
When the epidemic control is stricter, it is necessary to check the nucleic acid and health code for 48 hours.
Although there is no need to check these two items now, the ID card still needs to be verified.
"The queue is still quite long. If you take the bus, the speed will be slower, and the inspection will take a lot of time." Xiao Liu recalled that when there was no epidemic in the early years, the speed of passing the checkpoint was faster than now. .
Now that the epidemic control measures have been gradually optimized, I don't know if we can improve some efficiency in the inspection process to provide convenience for commuters.
intercity railway
Passengers expect increased frequency
Commuting between Beijing and Hebei is dominated by public transport and buses, while intercity railways play an important role in Beijing-Tianjin commuting.
At 5:40 pm, the reporter arrived at Beijing South Railway Station.
In front of the No. 24 ticket gate on the second floor, many passengers are preparing to board the C2063 train departing at 18:05 in the evening.
Although there are still 20 minutes before the departure time, many people have already lined up.
"I have been working from home for the past few months, and it has just resumed in the past half a month." Ms. Jiang, a passenger, takes the intercity railway to and from get off work every day. Waiting for seat tickets.
Ms. Jiang still remembers that there were not many people when she took the bus more than half a month ago, and there were many empty seats on the bus.
But now there are several buses in the morning and evening rush hour, and there are even more people taking the bus than in July and August.
"I feel that there are fewer trains, so everyone is crowded on the same train."
Passenger Mr. Chu is going to take the bus to Tianjin at 18:38, and he also has obvious feelings about the reduction in the number of trains.
"Especially for the train from Tianjin to Beijing in the morning, it's hard to get a ticket. I hope the frequency can resume as soon as possible." Because Ms. Jiang has a silver card, she can book some tickets reserved for silver card users through the system.
But Mr. Chu didn’t do it. He could only buy tickets through 12306. Sometimes he couldn’t even get a ticket from Tianjin to Beijing around 7 o’clock, so he had to buy an earlier time.
Has the frequency of the Beijing-Tianjin intercity railway decreased? Can you compare the timetable in the past?
The reporter consulted 12306 customer service, and the other party said that the train timetable for past dates could not be queried, but the problem of insufficient trains reported by passengers has been recorded and will be reported later.
(Mo Fan, client reporter of Beijing Daily)